Object of Meditation Matters. People with depression who have been taught mindfulness and meditation do not always get better. Why not?

Creation - Evolution Headlines ^ | 9-6-2020 | David Coppedge

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Object of Meditation Matters. People with depression who have been taught mindfulness and meditation do not always get better. Why not?

September 6, 2020 | David F. Coppedge

Depression is skyrocketing among young adults during the pandemic, Live Science reports. It is essential, therefore, to learn what kinds of therapy work, and which do not. Some commonly-prescribed cures may be worse than the disease.

Photos: Illustra Media, “In the Image of God”

Mindfulness is the art of paying close attention to your thoughts. Meditation, as taught by secular psychologists, often includes mindfulness. Clare Wilson at New Scientist announced, “Mindfulness and meditation can worsen depression and anxiety.”

About one in 12 people who try meditation experience an unwanted negative effect, usually a worsening in depression or anxiety, or even the onset of these conditions for the first time, according to the first systematic review of the evidence. “For most people it works fine but it has undoubtedly been overhyped and it’s not universally benevolent,” says Miguel Farias at Coventry University in the UK, one of the researchers behind the work.

[metmom]

The article is about using mediTation, not mediCation.

[jmacusa]

I understand that Madame but YOU don’t seem to understand what I’m saying. Depression is an illness. The brain is an organ of the body. It suffers illness and depression is an illness that I’m sorry to have to tell you but needs medication to deal with it.

Sitting in a lotus position for a depressed person with a serotonin re-uptake problem isn’t going to heal anything the same as Sigmund Freud thought sitting on a couch talking about sibling rivalry or penis envy was a cause of depression and would cure it.